General Conference Weekend

I just LOVE Conference Weekend!    

It started out with an early morning drive to waterton to look for wolves, and ended with a big Turkey dinner.   By far though- the best part was definitely the CONFERENCE PART;)   

Abby loves the snacks that we pull out in efforts to keep the kids engaged.

Sam loves that he doesn't have to actually go to church and sit still;)

Jessica loves the activity books she gets to work on while listening

And Nate?    Well, he was happy to climb all over everybody and not pay attention as usual;)

As per our Conference tradition- John set up the kids tent in the basement so that they could lay and listen.   It always turns into more of a jungle gym, thus causing John and I to constantly nag at the kids to be quiet and listen.     I really don't know why we continue to do this each year -but a tradition is a tradition!

Jewel brought over a cute little conference packet for the kids, which included snacks.   That bought us an extra 10 minutes of peace and quiet!

Jessica, took the conference packet seriously, trying to identify each speaker as best as she could. 

Abby has spent the past two days sewing!   I'm actually impressed that she sat and listened to all FOUR sessions of conference, and she created a lot of cool things in the process.   

She made a hand stitched purse.

Then she attacked a couple of her old T-shirts and made a pillow out of them.

And today she got really funky and stitched together a "Sock HORSE!" 

She's named it 'Niki'- and she's quite proud of it!

I don't know how I feel about the fact that 5 pairs of perfectly decent socks were used in the creation of this horse, but at the time I'm sure I gave her the green light.    I'd agree to anything if it meant I could listen to the talks uninterrupted.  (Which probably explains why, by the time the last session ended, 3 of our 4 kids were wearing SWIMSUITS and creating havoc with the sewing scissors.   ooopsies;)!

Speaking of the Conference talks - my favorites this year were given by:  

Elder Jeffrey R Holland - I felt like he was speaking directly to me.   Loved his thoughts on envying. 

Dieter F Uchdorf - Went along perfectly with Elder Hollands talk.  Loved the quote "Don't judge me because I sin differently then you."   Where Elder Holland's talk left me never wanting to envy others again, Elder Uchdorf's talk made me want to speak only kindly of others from this point on.   Why are those two things so hard to do?   

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom - I LOVED this talk!  His comparison of being "active in the church" vs "being active in the GOSPEL" has got me wondering where exactly I am at.      

and 

Elder Wilson - As parents we have to prepare our children to get along with out us, and we have to help our kids establish their OWN connection with heaven.  LOVE IT!

My only complaint is that General Conference Weekend never lasts long enough!!!